Yemen's Maritime Blockade: Ship Arrivals, Delays and Import Costs

Three nearly destroyed ports, two conflicting figures, and one account through which Washington and Riyadh seek to deny the blockade of Yemen.

More than 300 ships carrying various foodstuffs and goods, fuel, and building materials.

The Port of Hodeidah, between January and September 2026, 272 commercial ships unloaded their cargo at Hodeidah, Salif, and Ras Isa, according to the United Nations.

Food, petroleum, and basic necessities They always arrive. There was no blockade at all.

This discrepancy calls for asking a question beyond the alleged figures.

Is the arrival of a limited number of ships enough to deny a blockade of a country that relies on the sea to secure most of its needs?

Looking back to before the aggression against Yemen, statistics from the Red Sea Ports Corporation record the arrival of nearly 800 ships at Hodeidah and Salif alone in 2013, a sharp drop from the figures announced by the American and Saudi sides.

Despite the differing nature of commercial activity between the ports, The contradiction is clear in presenting this limited number of ships as evidence that no blockade exists, while Yemen’s population has grown, according to demographic studies,

from around 29 million to over 40 million.

Moreover, the limited passage of ships does not mean there is no blockade or restrictions, nor does it erase the cost of their journeys.

Reports by UN Security Council experts documented the inspection, diversion, and delay of ships, including 877 cumulative days of delays caused by Saudi regime measures in 2018, at an estimated cost of more than $26 million.

Those costs, along with higher insurance and financing complications, accumulate in the import bill before being reflected in the prices of goods and burdening exhausted citizens as their incomes and purchasing power decline because of the starvation and impoverishment policy designed by the U.S. and Saudi Arabia.

The only authority authorized to grant clearance for any air or sea transport is the coalition command.

Claims denying the blockade are contradicted by announcements from the Saudi aggressor itself, And they are also contradicted by UN reports on which the American and Saudi sides rely, since the point is not how many ships reached the port,

but how many ships did not arrive, and how many ships were delayed, and how much it cost for their cargo to reach the ports before finding its way to citizens’ tables, if it managed to.

The Saudi regime begrudges Yemenis the chance to live as others do, while one of its own ports received 2,677 ships last year out of 7,848 ships received by the Kingdom’s ports.

At best, Yemen was unable to reach what Port Sudan receives in commercial ships, even though Sudan is a country living through war and a major economic crisis, and yet it has received nearly 700 ships since the beginning of this year.

That is something a free, dignified, and independent Yemen cannot accept.